The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 95, July 1991 - April, 1992 Page: 325
598 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Faded Promise of Wartime Opportunity
regional industry. Anglo worker opposition was so strong, however,
that the FEPC was unable to assure Mexicans the wartime promise of
full and unobstructed job opportunities. The agency's failure to effec-
tively combat discrimination in three major refineries underscored its
powerlessness; it also demonstrated the durable strength of a system of
racial inequality.'
The experience of Mexican oil workers reflected a pattern of em-
ployment discrimination in other war-related industries. As the war-
time expansion of the southwestern economy opened up new job op-
portunities, Mexicans for the first time began to obtain employment in
urban-based war industries such as garment, meatpacking, construc-
tion, shipping, aircraft repair, and oil. The new-found opportunities,
however, soon dried up as high-wage firms filled up their laborer posi-
tions, the jobs that were normally available for Mexicans. As a result,
war industries only reached an employment level of approximately
25,000 Mexicans during the war, which represented a low utilization
rate of 5 percent. The wartime gains, therefore, accompanied per-
sistent inequality. This inconsistency was especially evident in growth
industries such as oil. Employers usually assigned Mexicans unskilled
jobs that paid the lowest wages and denied them the opportunity to ad-
vance into the better-paying skilled positions. They shared this condi-
tion with African American workers. Moreover, when the war ended
and industrial production decreased, they were generally denied fur-
ther access and displaced from the jobs they had recently acquired.'
The booming oil industry in the Gulf Coast offered some of the more
attractive job opportunities since it claimed one of the highest wage
rates for skilled and unskilled workers in the state. The sheer fact that
oil refineries offered a large and growing number of jobs also attracted
the attention of workers. Also, by the mid-1940os the CIO-affiliated Oil
5The FEPC conducted preliminary investigations in the Southwest in 1942 that resulted in
the discovery of widespread discrimination against Mexican workers in the oil companies of the
Texas Gulf Coast. The cases against the refineries and the workers' organizations lasted until
the closing of the Dallas office in 1945. Report of Clay Cochran to Dr. Castafieda, Oct 25, 1943,
Administrative Division, FEPC Records, John Morton Blum, V Was For Victory, Politcs and
American Culture Dunng World War II (New York. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976), 198; Law-
rence W Cramer to M C. Gonzales, Nov. 26, 1941, Division of Field Operations, FEPC
Records; Will Alexander to W G Carnahan, Dec 26, 1941, Division of Field Operations, ibid ;
Carlos Castafieda to Will Maslow, Jan 26, 1944, Administrative Division, ibid.
6Castafieda, "Statement on Discrimination Against Mexicans in Employment," 59-63, Cas-
tafieda, Testimony, 1945, x31-135, Carlos Castafieda, "The Second Rate Citizen and Democ-
racy," in Perales, Are We Good Neighbors, 17- o, and C. L Gohghtly, "Wartime Employment of
Mexican Americans, 1943," Division of Review and Analysis, FEPC Records. The Mexican
population, both U.S. and Mexico-born, was at least one million, or 11.5 percent of the total
population in the state. Approximately 500,000 Mexicans were gainfully employed The
25,000 figure was calculated on the basis of a 5 percent utilization rate reported by Castafieda325
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 95, July 1991 - April, 1992, periodical, 1992; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117153/m1/385/: accessed May 3, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.